Wire-tightener



"No. 626,93l. Patented lune'l3, I899.

N. J. RASMUSSEN.

Wl-RE TIGHTENER.

(Application filed Mar. 28, 1899.)

(No Model.)

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

NIELS JORGEN RASMUSSEN, OF NEOLA, KANSAS.

WIRE-TIG HTEN ER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 626,931, dated June 13, 1899.

Application filed March 2 3 l 8 9 9 To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, NInLs JoRenN RASMUS- SEN, of Neola, in the county of Stafford and State of Kansas, have invented a new and Improved WVire-Tightener, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The object of the invention is to provide a wire-tightener especiallyadapted for use in connection with wire fences and to so construct the device that it may be readily applied, easily handled, and so manipulated that any slack in a wire due to any cause may be expeditiously, effectively, and permanently taken up without injury to the wire or removing the wire from the posts and without disturbing the true line of the fence.

The invention consists in the novel construction and combination of the several parts, as will be hereinafter fully set forth,- and pointed out in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a longitudinal section through the device, taken practically on the line 1 1 of Fig. 2, the device being shown in position to take up the slack of the wire. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the device as it appears in Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 is a side elevation of a portion of the device, illustrating the position of the parts when the device is to be applied to the wire.

The body of the device consists of a loophead 10 and a handle 11, secured to the said head, that portion 12 of the handle adjacent to the loop-head being bifurcated, and the space at the bifurcated portion of the handle is in communication with the space within the loop. The construction of the body is completed byformingrearwardly-extendingclaws 13 at the sides of the loop-head, preferably between its center and outer end, the claws being in transverse alinement. A lever 14 is fulcrumed, by means of a suitable pin 15, in the bifurcated portion of the handle, the le- Ver terminating at its lower end in a fork 16. An arm 17 is pivoted in the fork of said lever, and said arm is attached to a plunger 18, which plunger isin the form of a yoke, being adapted to slide on the loop-head 10 of the body of the device, and a channeled cross-bar 18 is secured at the bottom portion of said plunger,

Serial No. 710.198. (No model.)

In connectionrwith the device a block 20 is employed, and said block is preferably of cylindrical form and may be of any desired dimensions.

In the operation of the device Wherever a line-wire 21 of a fence is slack said line-wire is taken up by the claws 13, the lever 14 being carried to a vertical or nearly vertical position, and when the lever is in this position the plunger 18 will be at the inner end of the loop-head of the body. The block 20 is now passed into the loop-head of the body to an engagement with the wire at the point where the slack is to be taken up, and the lever is then carried downward to the handle of the body and locked by the latch 19 in such position. When the lever is thus carried downward, the channeled bar 18 of the plunger is brought in engagement with the block 20, and when the lever has reached its lowest position (shown in Fig. 1) the linewire will have been bent around the block in such manner as not to impair the value of the wire in the least, and, next, a tie-wire is passed through the channeled portion of the bar carried by the plunger, and the ends of the tie-wire are coiledor Wrapped around the line-wire at each side of the block 20, any suitable or approved. instrument being employed for the purpose. The device may now be removed from the Wire, and the slack will have been taken up without disturbing the alinement of the fence. The blocks 20 are not unsightly nor are they in the way, since they need not be very large.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. A wire-tightener, consisting of a body comprising a handle and a loop-head, a lever pivoted in the said body, being adapted to extend within the loop-head, a plunger pivplunger being provided with a channeled lower surface facing the outer end of the loophead, and claws projected from the loop-head in front of the said plunger, for the purpose 1 set forth.

In a wire tightener, the combination, with a body comprising a loop-head, a handle having a portion thereof bifurcated and rearwardly-extending claws projected from the sides of the loop-head, of a lever pivoted in the bifurcated portion of the handle, the lower end of the lever extending within the loop-head, a plunger held to slide upon the loop-head to and from the claws, the plunger being provided with a channeled lower surface facing the said claws, an arm pivotally attached to the lower end of the lever, being rigidly secured to the plunger, and a latch adapted to hold the lever close to the handle of the body, for the purpose specified.

NIELS J ORGEN RASMUSSEN. Witnesses:

GEORGE M. NELSON, NES. L. RAM 

